Mar-A-Lago carries NFIP flood insurance protection

At the same time that the federal program faces an uncertain future, the president’s Florida estate is covered by it.

Mar-A-Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida estate and club, has a flood insurance policy through NFIP. The National Flood Insurance Program is the controversial program selling coverage to policies traditionally refused by private insurers due to high risk.

The Mar-A-Lago mansion and other buildings were shuttered and empty following a mandatory evacuation order.

Should President Donald Trump’s estate have suffered flood damage from Hurricane Irma, it is covered by NFIP. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) runs the National Flood Insurance Program. The Huffington Post reported that a FEMA spokesperson confirmed that the president’s property coverage through the federal program.

The program makes it possible for the most vulnerable properties to purchase flood insurance policies when they are located in zones prone to flooding and when their vulnerability typically causes them to be refused coverage elsewhere.

The NFIP coverage is paid for at its full risk rate, based on its actual chances of suffering a damaging flood.

The policy is insured to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust and the Trump Organization. This flood insurance coverage is not subsidized and has full risk rate classification for the level of flooding potential for that zone, said the FEMA spokesperson. The program does allow for subsidies for older properties, which means that the owners pay less than what the full flooding risk would reflect. The reason for the flooding is to make the coverage more affordable to property owners. These subsidies are not applied to Mar-A-Lago.

The federal flood insurance program coverage has a range of different rates for its policies. Though it was set to expire at the end of September, President Trump signed legislation last week that provides it with a temporary extension.

The NFIP has been a controversial topic for years and has experienced considerable criticism for the costs of liabilities it covers. Moreover, its premiums are consistently inadequate to cover the insurance payouts. It has now accumulated a debt of about $25 billion to the U.S. Treasury. That figure doesn’t include the payouts it will face for Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.